Multiple color paint tray



June 17, 1958 E. D. MOLLE MULTIPLE COLOR PAINT TRAY 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed March 29, 1954 FIG- 1 ERNEST DA Lt E /agLLE ATTORNEY June 17, 1958 E. D. MOLLE 2,833,781

MULTIPLE COLOR PAINT TRAY Filed March 29, 1954 I 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 MWWW \l T u WW W a given area.

United States Patent MULTIPLE COLOR PAINT TRAY Ernest Dlalle Molle, Chicago, Ill., assignor to The Sherwrslvlyllliams Company, Cleveland, Ohio, a corporation 0 Application March 29,1954, Serial No. 419,465 6 Claims. (01. -1211) The present invention relates to an improved paint tray of the class adapted to accommodate roller-coaters of both the single plain roll and overprint double roll design styles used in the application of paints and glazes to wall areas.

Heretofore a variety of paint trays have been suggested for the general use described. However, these trays have been confined to the application of but a single color with a single pass of the roller-coater over With the advent of dual roller-co-aters adapted to transfer of a multitude of designs in a multitude of colors to wall areas, e. g., in overprinting of glazes, a need has been felt for a means of applying a plurality of colors simultaneously to a wall area, to overcome the excessive time previously required to accomplish a multicolored patterned wall effect.

It is, therefore, the general object of this invention to provide a means of applying a plurality of colors of decorative liquids to an area simultaneously by means of a roller-coater.

The roller-coater may be of standard form having a cylindrical core rotatable about its central axis covered exteriorly with lambs wool or other pile fabric to produce a soft liquid absorptive surface. Alternatively, the roller may be constructed of a plurality of short length cylindrical cores, rotatable about a common axis adjacent to one another.

In some instances it may be found desirable to separate the roller segments by means of washers intermediate the segments to avoid color intermixing along the exterior cloth covering of each of the segments, but in other in-' stances marginal blending of the coating on the roller may be found desirable.

The general object of this invention is accomplished by providing a tray, adapted to be used to load the paint receiving roll of a roller-coater, having a relatively shallow liquid storage area in which a plurality of rectangular wells are contiguous to one another, the narrow partitions defining said wells running parallel to one another lengthwise of the tray and the height level of the interior partitions less than that of the level of the peripheral wall of said tray.

In use, the various rectangular wells may be filled with any variety of colors of overprinting glaze (see U. S. Serial No. 417,926, filed March 22, 1954, describing one suitable glaze) or they may be filled with paints of various hue, value, chroma and degree of gloss (e. g., fiat, semi-lustre or full gloss) to obtain a variety of custom designs. The lambs wool or other absorptive covered roller-coater is then rolled over the top of the partitions in a path parallel thereto. The top areas of the partition walls are preferably adapted (by knurling, creasing, corrugating or otherwise deforming) to retard the exterior periphery of the lambs wool roller so that the roller is caused to roll about its central axis in loading the roller evenly with coating liquids held in the various wells or reservoirs of the paint tray. The multiple colors may be applied directly to the area to be coated, or the ice 2. colored coating may be mediately transferred from the pile fabric roller to a design roller and thence to the area being decorated to provide an infinite variety of design patterns. Having indicated generally the object of the invention, and mode of using the invention in coating or decorating work, in describing the invention in greater detail attention is directed to the drawings wherein:

Figure 1 is a side elevation of an improved paint tray.

Figure 2 is a sectional view along the line 22 of Figure 1.

Figure 3 is a plan view. Figure 4 is a sectional view along the line 44 of Figure 3, partly broken away at one end.

Referring to the figures in greater detail, tray 1 may be, and preferably is, provided with an upwardly sloping bottom 3 and is limited in dimension by an essentially rectangular, perimeter defining, vertical wall 5 to form a liquid tight vessel or receptacle of greater depth at one end than the other. Support 6, at the shallow end provides an adjustable means of supporting the tray in 5 at the deep end at 9 and disappear into the shallow end of tray 1 at 11. The height or top level of each of the partition walls 7 is less than that of exterior peripheral wall 5 level. Walls 5 serve as guide means to bring the roller 14 into reproducible register when it becomes necessary to re-Wet the roller with additional color. The top area 12 of one or more of the partitions 7 may be knurled, corrugated or otherwise deformed to provide increased friction between each of the longitudinal partition tops 12 and the exterior periphery of paint roller surface 14.

Utility of the tray is particularly to be observed in application of an overprinting glaze to newly painted wall areas to obtain custom designed, multicolor, patterned wall areas resembling pre-printed wall coverings.

The method of accomplishing this end will be described in detail. A design roller-coater 15, equipped with a paint loading roller 14, and a design roller 17 which is provided with an adjustable clamping means 23 for separation of design roller periphery 18 from roller 14. Roller-coater 15 is placed with loading roller 14 downward. Roller 14 is run over the plurality of wells 20a, 20b, 20c and 20d along the deformed top edges 12 of partition 7, after each of the wells 20 has been filled with the desired colors but not above the level of the tops of partitions 7. Assume 26d is blue, 20c is pink,

20b is gray and 20a gold. Four separate colors are then loaded into roller 14 upon rolling design roller 15 from the shallow end forward. Roller 14 is removed from contact with the tray, reversed so that design roller 17 is downward. Clamp 23 is released to allow peripheral contact of design area 18 with the paint or glaze carrying roller 14. A couple of test passes are made over newspaper or other test area to determine that the feedingrate of the liquid is adequate, but not excessive. Feeding rate can be controlled by set-screw 22. One may commence at the ceiling of a side wall and by bringing design roller 17 downward in contact with the wall from the moulding, transfer the design in blue, pink, gray and gold to the wall area with but a single pass. For the next application, the roller is moved over, the distance depending upon taste and sought for design and color. For example, if one moves over one-half the width of the blue strip and the draw-down action of the design roller is repeated, one obtains a fourcolor superimposed design; or one may choose to start the next design roller draw-down pass so that the extreme outside of the gold strip coincides with the edge of the blue color as successive downward passes of the design roller are applied.

Endless design possibilities are opened by the simple tray means here described. By way of illustration, the old wliimsy of Barber-pole paint has been demonstrated by using alternate red and white paint in the wells 20a, 20b, 20c and 20d. A roller, as 14, wasused to pick up the paint, and by rotating a pole with the axis skew to the axis of the roller-coater, a helically striped red and white Barber-pole produced. Checker board patterns are possible by appropriate partitions placed normal to those described.

The material used in theinanufacture of the described tray may be thin sheet metal, e. g., aluminum or tinned or otherwise coated steel, or it may be found advantageous to mould them from thermoplastic or thermosetting polymeric materials. I

The preferred embodiment of my invention, as herein shown, is selected as illustrative only, and it is clearly within the skill of the art to modify non-essential features to accomplish the foregoing objectives. Having described the essential features of my improvement in paint trays for use with roller-coaters, what I claim is:

1. A tray adapted for use with roller-coaters in application of multiple color decorative coatings which comprises a relatively shallow liquid storage means, a plurality of relatively narrow partition means within said storage means adapted to provide a plurality of contiguous, rectangular liquid-tight wells, the level of height of said partition means less than that of the peripheral wall of said storage means, and the topmost area of at least one of said partitions adapted to provide retarding means acting on the periphery of the roller-coater.

2. A tray adapted for use with roller-coaters which comprises in combination; an essentially rectangular perimeter-defining vertical wall, a sloping bottom within and joining with said wall to form a liquid-tight vessel of greater depthat one end as compared with the other end, a plurality of relatively thin parallel partitions joining with the said vertical peripheral wall at its deep end and disappearing at said shallow end to form a plurality of contiguous essentially rectangular liquid-tight receiving wells of lesser depth than said vessel.

3. A paint dispensing tray adapted for use in supplying roller-coaters with a plurality of color coatings in register thereon to produce multicolor decorative effects with but a single pass which comprises in combination; a rectangular pan, a sloping bottom lengthwise of said pan so that one end has greater depth than the other and a plurality of relatively thin partitions within said pan forming a plurality of contiguous, rectangular, paint receiving and dispensing wells below the level of the exterior peripheral walls defining said rectangular pan.

4. A paint dispensing tray adapted for use in supplying roller-coaters with a plurality of color coatings in register thereon to produce multicolor decorative etfects with but a single pass which comprises in combination; a rectangular pan, a sloping bottom lengthwise of said pan so that one end has greater depth than the other and a plurality of relatively thin partitions within said pan forming a plurality of contiguous, rectangular, paint receiving and dispensing'wells below the level of the exterior peripheral walls defining said rectangular pan, the topmost part of at least one of said partitions dcformed to provide roller-coater retarding means.

5. A paint dispensing tray adapted for use with rollercoaters to produce multicolor decorative effects which comprises in combination; a rectangular perimeter-d fining vertical wall, a sloping bottom lengthwise within and joining with said vertical wall to form a liquid-tight receptacle one end of which is relatively deeper than the other end, a plurality of relatively thin parallel partitions lengthwise within said tray joining with the said peripheral wall at its deepend and disappearing into said bottom at the shallow end,'said partitions originating in and extendin'g'upwardly from said sloping bottom and terminating along a level below that of said perimeter wall to form a plurality of contiguous, rectangular, liquid receiving zones below the level of the exterior peripheral Walls defining said rectangular pan.

6. A paint dispensing tray adapted for use with rollercoaters to produce multicolor decorative effects which comprises in combination; a rectangular perimeter-defining vertical wall, a sloping bottom lengthwise within and joining with said vertical wall to form a liquid-tight receptacle one end of which is relatively deeper than the other end, a plurality of relatively thin parallel partitions lengthwise within said tray joining with the said peripheral wall at its deep end and disappearing into said bottom at the shallow end, said partitions originating in and extending upwardly from said sloping bottom and terminating along a level below that of said perimeter wall to form a plurality of contiguous, rectangular, liquid receiving zones below the level of the exterior peripheral walls defining said rectangular pan and a level supporting means exterior of the shallow end of said tray.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 262,416 H-utchison Aug. 8, 1882 1,941,922 Worth' Jan. 2, 1934 2,117,470 Zareko May 17, 1938 2,218,300 Schuster Oct. 15, 1940 2,444,096 Faust June 29, 1948 2,467,010 Coley Apr. 12, 1949 2,630,592 Sultanik et al. Mar. 10, 1953 2,661,858 Howell Dec. 8, 1953 FOREIGN PATENTS 898,414 Germany Nov. 30, 1953 

